Red Moscow

  Chapter 290 Misunderstanding

  Before the offensive began, Vanya ordered the mortar squad to shell the position of the German army. The purpose of doing this is twofold: one is to confuse the enemy so that your troops can successfully complete the charge at a distance of several hundred meters; , to point out the direction of attack for the commanders and fighters.

  The sound of the guns was an order, and the commanders and fighters who were ready for battle rushed out of the forest shouting "Ula" and rushed towards the burning barracks hundreds of meters away. The German army, which was dizzy by the sudden artillery fire, was falling into chaos, and no one organized a corresponding defense.

   It wasn't until the assault troops approached the barracks for fifty or sixty meters that the Germans came to their senses. Two machine gunners hiding in the fortifications that had not been destroyed by artillery fire began to shoot at the commanders and fighters who rushed up. Two dark red flames lashed towards the dense crowd like whips of fire, knocking down the charging soldiers piece by piece.

  Sokov, who was staying with the 3rd Battalion in the southern position of the city, saw the flames on the other side of the Tenebra River and heard the sound of gunfire, knowing that the 1st Battalion's offensive had officially started. He immediately said to Andre who was standing next to him: "Captain Andre, you have seen and heard the fire and gunfire on the other side. Next, it's time for you to come on stage."

   "Comrade Brigadier, please rest assured." Andrei waited for Sokov to finish speaking, and immediately stated: "Our third battalion will never disappoint your trust, and we will definitely cooperate with the comrades of the first battalion to eliminate the enemy on the other side of the river."

  Just as the commanders and fighters of the third battalion carried the river-crossing equipment, left the fortifications, and were about to wade through the wide waterlogged area and rushed to the Tenebra River, the enemy's long-range artillery fired. Because the commanders and fighters of the first battalion were fighting fiercely near their barracks, in order to avoid accidentally injuring their own people and to prevent the Soviet army from sending reinforcements in the chaos, they fired at the waterlogged area in front of the second company's position.

The screaming sound of shells piercing the air was heard in the air, and one after another shells landed in the water-logged area and exploded. There was a huge explosion sound, and water jets filled with mud shot up into the sky one after another. Then it was sprinkled on the soldiers who were wading in the water.

  Such shelling has long been used to by the soldiers of the third battalion. Although soldiers continued to fall in the artillery fire, the soldiers behind were still advancing without hesitation. As for the wounded who fell in the water, no one looked at them, so comrades from the health team will naturally come to rescue them later. All they have to do is to cross the Tenebra River as soon as possible to support the people who are fighting on the other side. Comrades in the fight against the enemy.

  Zhelia, who was standing in the observation post with Sokov, said with emotion: "Comrade Brigadier, despite the high proportion of recruits in the third battalion, the soldiers behaved calmly in the face of the enemy's shelling."

Zhelia's words reminded Sokov that when the third battalion was defending the eastern outskirts of the city, it was subjected to heavy German shelling for two consecutive days. Now this kind of sporadic shelling is simply child's play for them, and some people will panic. Strange. He turned his head and said to Gelia, "Gelia, if your company, like them, stood firm for two days under the heavy German artillery fire, the commanders and fighters would not take such artillery fire seriously."

"Comrade Brigadier, I heard that the reinforcements sent to us by the headquarters will arrive soon." Relia thought of his subordinates, who performed unsatisfactorily in the two days of battle, and promptly changed the topic and asked: "Is this all true?"

"That's right, it's true." Sokov nodded his head and said affirmatively: "If there are no accidents, they will arrive in the city after dawn. At that time, I can concentrate all my troops in the south of the city. Focus on defense."

"Comrade Brigadier, there is a question I haven't figured out." After a moment of silence, Gelia continued, "It stands to reason that Kursk is an important link in the German defense ring. The counterattack was not strong? Don’t they want to take back the city at all, but this is not in line with common sense?”

"It's not that they don't want to recapture Kursk, but that they don't have the strength at the moment." Sokov explained to Zelia: "You should know that the German army has assembled heavy troops in the direction of Bryansk, Orel and Voronezh. Our troops are facing each other. Their 6th Army and 4th Tank Army are currently rushing towards the Don River with all their strength, trying to advance in the direction of the Caucasus and Stalingrad. Our sudden occupation of Kursk disrupted the original German forces. For combat deployment, it will take a very long time for them to mobilize heavy troops to recapture the city. Such a long time is enough for us to deploy enough troops to defend this important city."

"So that's how it is." After hearing what Sokov said, Zelia said with a face of sudden realization: "No wonder my absolute enemy's attack is not as good as those previous battles. I thought that after our winter After the counterattack, the enemy's combat power was greatly weakened, so it turned out that they were temporarily unable to mobilize their troops."

After Zelia finished speaking, he suddenly remembered that Sokov had mentioned Stalingrad, so he asked curiously: "Comrade Brigadier, I seem to have heard you mention Stalingrad just now. Do you really think that the enemy will rush To outside Stalingrad?"

"That's for sure, Comrade Zhelia." Sokov looked at Zhelia and said with a serious expression: "The Germans' attempt to attack Moscow has failed, and they will definitely change their goals. Once they occupy Stalingrad, they will It can cut off our communication with the Far East, so that no matter how many troops we gather near Moscow, they will gradually lose their combat effectiveness due to the lack of weapons, ammunition and various materials.”

Regarding Sokov's statement, Zhelia disagreed and said: "Comrade Brigadier, I think the real goal of the Germans should be oil from the Caucasus. Only when they have enough oil can they ensure that There are so many planes, tanks and armored vehicles that we don’t have to lie down for lack of fuel.”

   After waiting for Zelia to finish speaking, Sokov raised his hand and slapped him on the back of the head: "The Germans need oil, who did you hear that from?"

"Who else could it be? Comrade battalion commander of course." Gelia said a little embarrassedly: "Some time ago, during a meeting in the battalion, someone asked him where the enemy's next attack would be. He specifically said If the Germans want to start so many planes, tanks, armored vehicles and cars, they will need a huge amount of fuel. The purpose of their continued offensive to the south is to get the oil they need, and the Caucasus oil fields in the south That's their ultimate goal."

  After listening to Zelya, Sokov couldn't help but fell silent. He didn't expect the second battalion commander Vasily to have such a strategic vision. In real history, if Hitler hadn’t been eager to get the oil from the Caucasus and ordered Huot’s 4th Tank Army to turn midway to attack the Caucasus, but would continue to cooperate with Paulus’ 6th Army and rush towards Stalingrad , whether this city named after the Supreme Commander himself can be kept is a question.

  Don't look at the materials reported by the leaders of Stalingrad to Moscow, which repeatedly emphasized what kind of solid defenses have been established around and inside the city, which is enough to resist enemies from any direction. But these words are all clichés, no matter how good the fortification is, if there are no defenders to defend it, it is just a decoration. At this moment, Stalingrad can almost be regarded as an empty city. If the German army really rushes over, the only people who can organize resistance are the militias in various factories and the hastily armed citizens. With this kind of armed force, it is simply impossible to block the elite German army who is armed to the teeth and has experienced many battles.

"Comrade Brigadier, what are you thinking?" Zelya saw that after he had finished speaking, Sokov suddenly fell silent, but stood in a daze at the lookout, and asked with concern: "Are you too tired? Do you want to take a break?"

Zhelia's voice woke Sokov up from his contemplation. He waved his hand at the other party and said, "It's okay, Comrade Zhelia, I'm fine. It's just that I suddenly thought of something, and I was a little absorbed in thinking about it. By the way, have our troops reached the Tenebra?"

  Because the light outside is too dark and the visibility is low, if you want to see the movement of the troops outside, you can only rely on the flames produced by the explosion of German artillery shells. When Sokov was in a daze, Zelia carefully observed the situation outside. Hearing Sokov's question at this moment, he quickly replied: "Comrade Brigadier, some soldiers carrying kayaks have already approached the special Nebra River, trying to put the kayak into the water."

Soldiers carrying kayaks or wooden boats came to the river, threw them into the water with a plop, and then climbed up seven or eight soldiers. Before the commander gave an order, they used paddles or engineering shovels to start desperately boating. On the other side, before the boats docked, the soldiers jumped into the knee-deep water and ran quickly towards the bank.

Because before departure, Sokov once told Andre that after crossing to the other side, he should adopt the tactics of chaos against chaos, instead of gathering the troops, use squads as units to rush towards the depths of the enemy. Beat the enemy to pieces in one breath. After Andrei returned to the army, he passed on Sokov's order to the company platoon leader below. He specifically emphasized: "comrades company platoon leaders, in order to quickly join the comrades of the first battalion, after crossing the river, There is no need to regroup the troops, but use the squad as a unit to immediately go into battle, and before the enemy recovers, break into their defensive depths and join forces with the first battalion that is fighting fiercely with the enemy. Do you understand?"

  The platoon leaders of each company faithfully carried out the orders of Sokov and Andrei. After the troops crossed the river, they did not regroup at all. As soon as a squad came over, one squad went into battle;

   Don't see the large number of German troops, but because half of the troops had just arrived and hadn't had time to familiarize themselves with the environment, they were raided by the 1st Battalion, and the organizational system was immediately disrupted. After nearly an hour of fierce fighting, the German army, which suffered heavy casualties, barely stabilized its position. Just at this time, the troops of the third battalion crossed the Tenebra River again and launched an attack from another direction. The German commander had to hastily mobilize troops to meet it.

  Intensive gunshots and grenade explosions suddenly came from the north of the German barracks, which caught Vanya's attention. He looked in that direction for a while, and felt that it must not be his own troops that made the German army mess up there. Seeing this situation, he quickly ordered the radio operator beside him: "Send a telegram to the brigade headquarters immediately to ask if any reinforcements have crossed the river?"

  His telegram had only been sent a few minutes before he received a reply. Belkin told him in the telegram that the troops of the third battalion had successfully crossed the river, and asked him to cooperate with the third battalion to maintain the initiative on the battlefield. At dawn, they will be supported by air and artillery.

   After reading this telegram, Vanya couldn't help but be a little dumbfounded. He thought to himself that although he knew that his superiors had sent reinforcements, his subordinates didn't know. According to the original battle plan, the three companies could just attack forward, and if they found the oncoming troops, they would open fire without saying a word. That's it. But at the moment when the reinforcements are coming, it is easy to misunderstand. If one of his own people fights with his own people, then the problem will be serious.

Thinking of this, Vanya quickly called a few signal soldiers and told them: "Go and find the company commanders immediately and tell them that there are friendly troops crossing the river to support us. In order to prevent misunderstandings, let them slow down the attack speed."

  Although Vanya dispatched the messengers in time, the battlefield was already in chaos at the moment. The messengers who dispatched the orders, not to mention finding a few company commanders, were completely lost after running not far away.

  The 1st Battalion and 2nd Company rushed into the German barracks. When they were charging forward, they suddenly saw a group of people rushing towards them in the distance. They thought it was the German counterattack troops and quickly opened fire there. The dense bullets immediately knocked the opponent down, but the opponent did not collapse because of this, but lay down on the spot and started shooting with them.

  After fighting for a while, a platoon leader of the second company felt that something was wrong. Why was there the sound of Popov's submachine gun firing on the opposite side? He hurriedly crawled to the side of the company commander, and said loudly to him: "Comrade company commander, there seems to be something wrong!"

   "What's wrong?" The company commander, who was shooting a submachine gun, asked without looking back, "What's wrong with you?"

   "Why is there the sound of Popov's submachine gun on the opposite side?" The platoon leader quickly replied, "Could it be our own troops?"

Hearing what the platoon leader said, the company commander hurriedly stopped shooting, and listened for a while, and sure enough, he heard the sound of Popov submachine guns and Mosin Nagant rifles among the gunshots coming from the opposite side. His first reaction was : It’s broken, why did we fight with our own people.

  The company commander quickly shouted loudly: "Stop shooting, stop shooting, don't fight anymore!"

  (end of this chapter)